Christians

Without in any way wanting to mitigate the horror, grief and shock of the murders in Paris, I am growing weary of the disingenuity of so many in the media disclaiming the potentially violent power of the pen and the image.

On 10-11 April 2015, Christians will gather in Waterloo for Open Church, a conference on ‘The church, sexuality, mission and the future’. It will be held against a background of increasing debate in evangelical circles on sexual ethics.

Christians and other small communities in the Middle East and North Africa face an uncertain and sometimes dangerous situation in which fear is understandable, acknowledges Dr Harry Hagopian. But there is still good reason to resist being overly gripped by insularity and despair, to question the agenda of hierarchs, and to try to respond positively to the grassroots change that will continue to sweep the region over the coming year and beyond.

For the first time in northern Nigeria, a Muslim state governor has accepted an invitation to a church revival programme during which he called for unity and peaceful co-existence between the country's Christians and Muslims.

US National Council of Churches' General Secretary Michael Kinnamon has welcomed a call by World Council of Churches chief the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia "to quell the violence" against the hard-pressed Christian minority in Iraq.

Anglican Bishop of Reading, Stephen Cottrell, welcomed trainee ministers to services of lamentation at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston on Friday - the place where Trident warheads are made for British military submarines.

This Sunday two Christian campaigners from Manchester will begin a 2-week protest camp outside the Houses of Parliament to call on MPs to help change UK policies that are making refused asylum seekers destitute.

Senior representatives of the Vatican have used the annual Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue message to Muslims for the end of the month of Ramadan to urge the two faiths to work together in promoting family life.